1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, a method thereof, and a recording medium. More specifically, the present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, a method thereof, and a recording medium capable of extracting an intended small image from a single composite image comprising a plurality of small associated images, e.g., captured by a digital still camera.
2. Description of Related Art
With the spread of digital still cameras in recent years, it has been a frequent practice to connect the digital still camera to a printer via a cable or a personal computer and print captured images.
Some digital still cameras combine captured images for printing (see JP-A No. 341406/1990).
Some digital still cameras can create and record a single composite image from a series of small captured images that are associated with each other. The small images can be sequentially extracted from the recorded image data for reproduction. In this manner, there is provided a simple way of recording and reproducing motion pictures.
However, the above-mentioned composite image is printed out as a series of small images like an index print.
The composite image is displayed as a series of small images on a screen. The composite image is a single image file as data though the composite image seems to comprise a plurality of image files. Accordingly, it has been impossible to either extract or print an intended small image from the composite image created as a single image file.